Expanding the Scope of Guideline Development: The E-GAPPS Conference Points the Way!

If you didn’t make it to the E-GAAPS conference, you missed a great opportunity for networking, sharing ideas, and improving your knowledge of guideline development, the importance of shared decision making, and many more topics. Below are a few highlights from this conference from our guideline committee chair, methodologist, and staff.

From our Guideline Committee Chair: I was in awe!

“This was the first guideline conference I attended and I was in awe of the talent and progression of societies in guideline development. I particularly was intrigued by the medical informatics and technology talks and will be discussing how to make our guidelines more compatible with clinical decision support. The energy and thoughtfulness of guideline developers within private health care systems was an inspiration along these lines. I see this as a logical approach to track adherence to our guideline recommendations.” 

From our Methodologist: Continual improvements to the GRADE tools and methodology.

“We’ve updated our process manual to be consistent with the IOM standards for guidelines and systematic reviews and modified the GRADE methodology for our evidence synthesis process. I was pleased to see that working groups are developing easy-to-use tools to make the process of GRADE more transparent. We also got some great ideas regarding performing pragmatic systematic reviews.”

From our Staff: Networking!

It’s great to see so many familiar faces at this conference and to make new acquaintances. I enjoyed conversations about AAN’s grant work in process, projects that are just about to publish, changes to development and dissemination methodologies, and new technologies on the horizon to aid in guideline development.” 

Finally, congratulations to the conference organizers and the planning committee. This first conference was a success and something I hope that will continue in future years. And thanks very much to New York Academy of Medicine for making their facility available; it was a spectacular venue. 

If you attended the conference, please share your key takeaways with our readers. And plan now to attend the 10^th Annual Guidelines International Conference in San Francisco in August. Bring your staff, your committee members, and your methodologists. We look forward to seeing you in there, if not sooner.